Plum Falls, New York, 1840s: Dismissed from Harvard Divinity School for
his liberal views, Increase Joseph Link arrives home with a heavy heart.
He gives up his dream of becoming a minister to settle for life on the
farm, until the day he is struck by lightning and hears a voice telling
him to rise and speak. Heeding that voice, Increase becomes a preacher,
advocating for environmental protection and the end of slavery and war.
His growing band of followers calls itself the Standalone Fellowship,
and they accompany him on his move west to Wisconsin, to a place of
better land and opportunity.
Link Lake, Wisconsin, 1852: Preacher Increase Link and the Standalone
Fellowship settle near a lake that they name in his honor. Increase's
gifted tongue calls people to his mission to protect the land: "Unless
we take care of the land we shall all perish." To finance the fellowship
activities, Increase sells his special cure-all tonic--fifty cents per
bottle!
Inspired by actual events that took place in upstate New York and
Wisconsin in the mid-nineteenth century, The Travels of Increase
Joseph is the first in Jerry Apps's series set in fictional Ames
County, Wisconsin. The four novels in the series--which also includes
In a Pickle, Blue Shadows Farm, and the forthcoming Cranberry
Red--all take place around Link Lake at different points in history.
They convey Apps's deep knowledge of rural life and his own concern for
land stewardship.
